Last week was a long one, spending a week in Florida at the Coral Springs camp, then heading off to Alabama for the B-ham workshop proved to be a rewarding and fun experience.
The week in Coral Springs was great, meeting the swimmers from all over the world, and spending enough time with them to work through some of the more detailed aspects of swimming, it was great.
Of course, getting up early in the morning to swim long-course while the sun came up was also a nice plus. We obviously had picked the right to be there as well, as the week before and this week are proving to be a little colder.
On Friday, I got up early and flew to Birmingham, AL and then got in my car and traveled to Tuscaloosa to my Alma Mater, the University of Alabama. It's always fun to visit because there is so much history and some that I was involved in.
As I walked in to the coaches office, I saw pictures of the Hall of Fame members which were hand painted. I had never seen these before, and it was pretty cool to see my own. Makes you feel pretty special.
Coach Don Wagner had surprised me by asking me to speak to the teams prior to their meet against Florida State. I was pretty nervous walking in to my old locker room. I could remember the emotions and feeling as we prepared to race against the like of Rowdy Gaines from Auburn, or Craig Beardsley from Florida (both World Record Holders at the time). I couldn't help but feel a part again, and hopefully had imparted a little bit of intensity to the team.
The young swimmers from Bama were very nice throughout the meet, telling me they were excited to meet me, and that I got them fired up, who knows, I think they may have just been polite. Anyway, they swam great and won both the Women's and Men's meets. It was very exciting to watch and their strokes were so beautiful. I had tried to get across the point just how good they each were, even though that when they are surrounded by swimmers of the same calibre, they sometimes feel very average. I wanted to assure them that swimming at the level they are at, they truely are GREAT.
Watching the warm-up and then the races really showed how aware most of these swimmers are in how they move through the water. Their own mastery is shown by how they initiate their swimming off the walls. Being very careful not to lift their heads at the highest speeds. Trying to milk every last bit of speed from each turn. Even watching the freestylers showed that the head positions have really come down over the years. The faster swimmers really seem to be staying so much in line.
All said, it was great fun to be at the meet, and I wanted to thank the Bama team for inviting me to participate.
The other exciting part, of course, was having lunch with my former coach, Don Gambril. How often do you get a chance to sit down and "chew the fat" with a living legend. Coach Gambril was a 5 TIME OLYMPIC COACH. 'Bama had some recruits in, and I introduced them to Coach. I think what I realized, is that we really are getting old. These kids didn't seem as impressed as I thought they should be. Think of it... 5 Olympic Teams. It's amazing to think of the longevity and the ability to stay at the top of your sport for that long.
On to Birmingham. 30 campers in a pool with a bubble over top of it. And what a great group it was. From Mark, whom I swam with as a 13 year old and have not seen for over 25 years, to Casey, a newer swimmer who's natural feel for the water allowed him to go from 16 strokes with a tremendous kick, to 13 strokes with no kick. All I can say is that I had a great time, and always remember why we do what we do after I have the opportunity to teach people.
Our hosts, Team Magic, was fantastic in helping set up the workshop, and if you ever are in Birmingham, look them up.
Alright, enough for today. Must get back to work and hopefully the new book is coming in today.
posted by Glenn Mills at 12:54 PM
I had a great experience this morning.
I had the opportunity to swim in an Endless Pool. A friend of mine who is a builder recently installed a unit in a local home, and was telling me about it, and I asked if there was anyway I could try it out. He spoke to the home owners, and for the price of a couple of pairs of goggles, I was swimming in place.
Now, I've had experience swimming in a flume before, but it has been awhile, and now, with more educated eyes as a teacher, I was looking at this from a totally different perspective. It was more than "how fast does it go", it was "what is the teaching value of this pool".
Of course, when I first got it, I wanted to see what the top end was, having heard from other swimmers that these are "just too slow". HOGWASH. Turning the dial to the top end, I was immediately greeted with a HUGE rush of water from the center mounted motor, as I was filming this, you could see the smile come across my face.
I manuvered my body in front of the wash of water, and got pushed back quite forcefully. I quickly got up to speed and felt the importance of "staying fishlike". As soon as I would initiate a pull, I could feel the water pushing me backwards, it was so important to "hook in" to the rush of the water, rather than trying to overpower it. It was exactly what we've been teaching.
Even a small look forward by lifting the head proved very disruptive. At the higher speeds in the water, ANY part of your body that is not in perfect alignment will show tremendous resistance. I wasn't setting the world on fire with my speed, it's not as fast as the $3 million flume at Colorado Springs, but it was MORE than enough for a GREAT workout while being taught many little things about your stroke.
I will say, that at the highest speed, there is a little more turbulance on the head and some buffeting occurs that would normally not happen in a regular pool. I would also say though, that most people would not be able to sustain this pace for longer than a short period of time.
At regular speeds, it was pristine. Smooth, calm, and relaxing. The water flowing past my body was hypnotic. I could have stayed there all day. Really working on the techniques taught by TI made it effortless to stay in one spot. Simply rolling my body from one side to the other, as I stayed as balanced as possible, was wonderful. I would frequently feel my feet starting to drop a little behind me, and then realize, I'd forgotten to kick.
Time to really test it thought. I'd been through many of the TI drills, with fins, without fins, and all worked absolutely perfectly. I could just imagine myself standing in the water teaching someone about a foot away, and guiding them through the entire process. Wow, this would be great.
Anyway, it was time for breaststroke and butterfly. First breaststroke at the limit. What problems would I encounter, or how easy would it be to swim "fast" breaststroke? The first thing I realized is that when you're swimming fast breaststroke in a pool, the water in front of you, or where you're going to be is smooth and calm. In the Endless Pool, the water is moving and, at the top speed, a little on the choppy side. This made it a little tougher to breath than I would have wanted, but knowing this after a few quick strokes made me pre-plan for this, and quickly it was a non-issue.
I was able to overcome the problem, and learn that it becomes extremely important to "hide your head" while in the streamline position in between strokes. At the high speeds, if you lift your head at all, you'll be pushed back. As in freestyle, getting your body into the perfect position is paramount to staying in the stream.
Butterfly showed the same problems as breaststroke as far as breathing was concerned, but it was less of a problem after I realized the adjustment to come up just a little bit higher, not a great teaching point, but it's still a usable tool for butterfly. It did also make me focus on my hand entry. With my wife filming me from two feet away, fully clothed, I didn't dare splash, so, I'm not sure if it was the Endless Pool that made me focus on my silent entry, or Wendy.
All-in-all, simply put, I'm still pumped from the experience. Thinking of the salmon swimming upstream, what they've known for years. We, as humans have marvled at their ability to swim up stream for hours upon hours without dying of exhaustion, but I'm starting to realize their secret. See, it's what we've been teaching, the little "catch phrase", fishlike swimming. Maintaining momentum really is much, much easier than gaining momentum. This little machine shows that SO clearly. By taking away the junk that's in our strokes, we don't have to slow down, and by not slowing down, we're much better swimmers. The Endless Pool showed small flaws in my stroke, and made me more aware of how to correct them. A very nice system indeed.
posted by Glenn Mills at 10:28 AM
